Friday, 27 January 2017

Feed 4 for £10: Red Lentil, Chickpea and Chilli Soup

"Soups are boring and never taste as nice as bought ones!"

Someone actually tried saying this to me a few weeks ago. In their defence, this was before I showed them just how many different soups you can make, and how to make them that little bit tastier!

Welcome back to our Feed 4 for £10 series, where today is all about a tasty lentil, chickpea and chilli soup I learnt to make back at the start of 2016! And what better thing to think about eating during these cold evenings?

Quite often, I find myself looking for a meat-free meal. It just feels that little bit healthier, especially when you try and bulk things out with more vegetables. So, while today's recipe is meat-free and doesn't contain many vegetables, you may wish to add other vegetables and/or some left over chicken to the soup!

Not the best picture I have ever taken, but its how it tastes - not how it looks!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons cumin (£0.10)

2 teaspoons chilli powder (£0.10)

red onion (£0.17)

1 tablespoon oil (£0.02)

140g red lentils (£0.25)

850ml vegetable stock (£0.03)

400g chopped tomatoes (£0.31)

400g chickpeas (£0.50)

Now, once again, this recipe is below the £10 mark - coming in at a grand total of £1.48 for 4 portions! Of course, if you wish to buy special crusty bread or rolls to go with this soup then that's up to you, but at 37p per serving can we really begrudge ourselves a part-baked roll?

Method:

Heat a saucepanbefore dry-frying (without oil) the cumin and chilli for 1 minute, or until they start to jump around the pan and release their aromas.

Add the oil and onion, and cook for 5 minutes.

Stir in the lentils, stock and tomatoes, before bringing them to the boil.

Simmer for 15 minutes until the lentils have softened.

Blitz the soup with a hand blenderor in a food processor until it is a rough purée,

Pour the soup back into the pan and add the chickpeas.

Heat gently and season well.

So there you have it! A healthy, appetising dinner or lunch for you all! As said previously, if you give it a go, let us know what you think of it!

*Please note, prices correct at time of writing. Prices are subject to change and may vary across different supermarket chains and stores. Thank you for your understanding.